Design Dilemma: Space

image by Cleveland Hall Designs

Space...the final frontier...ha! Just kidding!

Isn't it true that we never seem to have enough space? If we are lucky enough to own more than one home, we tend to chose a larger one each time. There are certainly practicalities inherent with this trend: growing families, desires to entertain, or just the need to accommodate more stuff. But, having more space doesn't necessarily solve the design dilemma of space, and that's because more often than not, if your DD revolves around space - it's not really about the quantity, but rather the quality.

Have you ever been to one of those grand homes, tons of living space, and yet felt as if you had to yell across the room to the person sitting on the opposite couch - thirty yards away? Clearly, not lacking in the quantity of space, but undeniably void in quality space.

How a room is organized is typically dictated by use - a living room that hosts many a soiree should probably be put together so that furniture arrangement allows people to move about easily, whereas one used mainly by a family might focus around a fireplace or entertainment center.

Often when we feel we need more space in a room, we remove items - the whole "less is more" concept - but maybe the solution is not so simple. It may be we need to rethink arrangement/placement, actual use and dimensions. For example - it may be we need extra seating - but instead of one large club chair, two, smaller slipper chairs would work.

The best rooms don't necessarily have a lot of space, but most definitely make the best use of space.

Nowhere is the "best use of space" more vital than in airplanes, where each inch of space is deemed critical. Check out these pics of Airbus' new A380 - a double-decker commercial aircraft built for the 21st century.

Just a little VIP lounge - that's all...

So what? I can stretch my legs.

Care to join me at the bar?
And this is COMMERCIAL FLIGHT!!

With all the (dreaded) long-range flying I do these days, I'm thinking flight school might have been a more useful career path than law school!

Missed Calling?

I have almost always loved design - even before I knew what it was. I'm a big details person, and often, I believe, good design is in the details. Somewhere along the way, I didn't listen to my gut (always a mistake), it went something like this:

The Synopsis

• University of Texas freshman - Liberal Arts major - Intention: become someone who works in historic preservation
• No curriculum for such job, also told it is a "hobby for rich ladies" - switch majors to School of Natural Science - Nutrition - Hey, I've always been into health, fitness, etc - probably a good, "responsible" degree to get.
  
• Graduated, got RD/LD license, got job in medical sales - much better salary, benefits, etc, etc AND with the companies I worked for, got to interact with patients (not just MDs for signatures), so had a decent sense of accomplishment with work. Unfortunately, it was still a bottom-line sales job. Sales is sales - you either love it or you don't OR you love the money, deal with what you don't love about the rest of it, and go on. I was too young to settle for a career that was mostly uninspiring, and I didn't want to be "that person" who was miserable but "oh so Miss Independent." So I quit.
  
• What do you do when you don't know what else to do? Go to law school. So, I went - got the JD (which many non-JD'd persons seem to be impressed by)...all the while still felt no fire in the belly EXCEPT when I was researching, rummaging, scouting and planning for Ben and mine's first home - an early 1920's craftsman bungalow in the Houston Heights neighborhood.

**I just realized, this "synopsis" was about as accurate and oxymoronic as "legal brief" **

Now, I had found my Bliss! Paint, tile samples, hours spent choosing fixtures and finishes. Some people find sanctity in the Nordstrom shoe dept. (well, I get that too...) but my padded cell could've been the appliance section at Home Depot.

Everyone has that moment, right? When you are just hit with the sense of THIS IS MY CALLING! Mine came when we had our Open House party - the house looked great (in my humble opinion!) with cozy lighting, stylishly-presented food, and the "just right" touches - like ice-block wine chillers. OK, we're not talking Preston Bailey, here, but it wasn't too shabby - especially for someone with no formal training in home design or event planning!
I think it was probably there and then that I got The Bug to design.
I know I have the passion, and I think I have some talent, hopefully some of that often-elusive-thing-money-can't-buy....knack.


We've got another home under our belts, although I didn't have the chance to fully flex my creative muscles with it, as the majority of big projects had been done - not necessarily to my exact tastes, but well enough not to require immediate change.

So, now what?
We're living in Brazil (following Ben's career), so my home remodeling is temporarily on hold, but, my brain is always spinning with ideas - probably even more so now that there's that aspect of the unattainable. But all of it has really got me thinking...."What can I DO with this passion?" I'm looking into online design courses. I'd much rather just apprentice under someone really good (see my daily fix), but, in design - access is key, and one must be a "tradesperson" to get access to the really, great products.

So...missed calling? I think not - just maybe a bit delayed...